7 Reasons to Become a Blogger at University

“Sharing is caring” must be of the most viral quotes on (and about) the internet. We live indeed in the internet era and online presence has undoubtedly become not just complementary to the offline world, but almost compulsory. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+ – the more present you are on such platforms, the better. Your online presence shapes your image and it is of particular importance for young people to build up a positive image of themselves, both online and offline, not just for social reasons but also to boost employment prospects.

Apart from the aforementioned types of online presence, there is one more I left on purpose for the end: the option to become a blogger. It is true that your social media accounts say a great deal about you, but this is usually broken up into bits and pieces of information, not providing you with enough room to share your thoughts, views and opinions. A personal blog is the first step towards personal branding, especially useful for students who need to take control of their online presence and start advertising themselves in order to build up a career.

I am the type of person who talks much and feels the urge to share anytime something more or less out of the ordinary happens. I started contributing to a blog in my native tongue (Romanian) in my first year of university. It wasn’t anything very structured at the beginning, but I received very good feedback and I also started feeling happier and more accomplished after every article I wrote. Later on, after many trips and some time spent abroad I felt the need for a change, as more and more of my foreign friends asked me what I was writing about all the time and suggested I should write in English. Now I am writing both on my personal blog and for several other publications and I love it more and more every day. My little experiment turned into more than just a hobby and I am really glad I decided to become a blogger.

So, after this long introduction, I will highlight in the following lines my top seven reasons to become a blogger while at university:

1. Personal satisfaction

How many of you think of writing as something reserved for the gifted (as if there was a clear definition of that somewhere) and don’t consider yourselves capable of writing even a few paragraphs? Well, those are some normal thoughts before you start trying. But once you become a blogger, ideas keep on coming and you get better, until in the end you find yourself wondering: “Wow, is it me who wrote that?”

2. Personal branding all the way

As I said, contributing to a personal blog is one of the strongest forms of online presence. Your blog gives you space to shape your image and share your thoughts with anyone interested. Your blog says who you are, just like your ID card or your accomplishments so far.

3. Acquire new skills

In time, keeping a blog is not only about writing. There come other details, such as editing techniques, SEO, web maintenance, social media algorithms and so on and so forth. At the beginning it’s “all Greek” and you get stuck in the web of the World Wide Web. Then you start reading here and there, asking people who know what it is all about, teach yourself with tutorials and voilà, after a while the whole process becomes routine.

4. Get in touch

A personal blog is an online business card for networking. You get to meet likeminded people, who appreciate your ideas and see potential in you. It is a rich source of inspiration, as you never know who may come across your blog.

5. Shape your identity

This goes hand in hand with #2. I already stated how important it is for students to find out who they actually are and what they expect from life. Writing is also a type of therapy. You get to know yourself better and let others know you.

6. Your thoughts don’t get lost

More often than not I find myself scrolling down on older blog posts just to recall how it was back then when I wrote them. Sometimes I am even surprised by the ideas that I once had and that would have got lost if I hadn’t jotted them down somewhere.

7. Earn some extra money

Well, yes. That is possible too after a certain amount of time. As the number of your readers increases, you can actually earn some pocket money from advertising. This is the last reason on the list, as it shouldn’t be your supreme purpose when deciding to become a blogger (if it is, it probably won’t happen). And even if you don’t get to earn money with your blog, who knows who may read it and suggest a collaboration?